A Day in the Life of a Blogger
Working at home is hard! There are so many ways to get distracted at home.
- The cat just coughed up a hair ball.
- Did the mailman just deliver a check I have been expecting?
- I really need to Swiffer under the couch.
- That light bulb just burned out and I have to replace it.
- My son has an early practice so I need to plan an earlier dinner.
Because of this, I have a few things I do to help me stay focused when working at home.
Tips that help me stay on task while working at home
- I schedule time blocks as much as possible to help me get things done. Each time block is scheduled for a certain type of task. I even break up my morning by scheduling 30 minutes to work on household tasks. This allows me to return to work with more focus than if I had tried to use those 30 minutes for more blogging work.
- I close Facebook and email on my laptop when I need to be writing. I still get visual notifications on my phone from specific Facebook groups and for emails. It is easier for me to avoid spending too much time on email or social media when I just access them from my phone instead of from my laptop during the times I need to focus on writing.
- I also use the Google Drive app on my phone to keep track of blog post ideas and my on-going to-do list. When I think of something during my writing time, I will simply pause to make a note in a Google Doc so I don’t forget. Then I return to my writing.
In case you are curious what I do all day, below is my typical weekday schedule during the school year. Days will vary depending on what after school and family activities we have going on.
I know my situation is not the same as yours, but I hope you will enjoy this sneak peek into my daily routine.
Background information
I currently work from home as a virtual assistant, freelance writer and blog owner. I have two kids in school during the day. My youngest has been in daycare since she was 12 weeks old, when I worked as an accountant outside the home. After I was laid off, my husband and I made the decision to keep our daughter in daycare/preschool during the school year while I worked from home.
Daily Schedule
5:15 am – Wake up. Fill up a glass of water and turn on my laptop. Do some writing before kids wake up.
5:55 am – Fix breakfast for everyone (me, Hubs and 2 kids). Get kids up at 6:10 and 6:20. These have proven to be the best times for us to get 9-year-old on bus at 7:05 and 4-year-old out the door by 7:30.
6:25 am – While kids are eating breakfast and getting ready for school, I check my email, do some morning pinning for Choosing Real, scroll through my Bloglovin’ feed to find shareable content, get dressed, make the bed, help kids get ready for school and Hubs for work.
7:30 am – Take youngest to preschool.
8:00 am – Return home. Fill coffee cup and sit down on couch to work on my to-do list. My husband makes a pot of coffee every morning before he goes to work and leaves some for me.
During this time I work on blog posts including writing, research and photo editing. I have my best writing focus in the morning, so I try to take advantage of this time.
10:00 am – Household tasks not related to blogging: cleaning, preparing for dinner, making grocery list, online banking, etc.
10:30 am – Work on current VA projects or other blogging projects not specifically related to posts. This could include scheduling Facebook posts, scheduling tweets using TweetDeck, modifying ads, reviewing analytics, applying for sponsored posts, and making general blog modifications.
11:30 am – Eat lunch. On days my husband is home, I will eat lunch with him while watching one of our shows off the DVR.
12:30 pm – Back to working on upcoming blog posts. This is the time I review what I worked on this morning and get posts scheduled.
2:00 pm – Work on virtual assistant projects or Elite Blog Academy assignments or other blogging related tasks.
3:00 pm – Oldest comes home from school, work on dinner plans, help with homework, pick up youngest from preschool.
5:30 pm – Dinner and family time. Some nights our 9-year-old has sports too.
7:00 pm – Kids get ready for bed and read with us.
8:00 pm – I shower, floss, get ready for bed.
8:30 pm – Hang out with my husband.
9:30 pm – Bed time generally
On weekends I still get on social media and work on smaller blogging tasks, but do very little actual writing.
I also have to try really hard to not let my blogging time filter into my family time. This is difficult for me because there is always something I can be working on for my blog. Between adding better post images, promoting more on social media and improving how I monetize my platform, blogging work is never actually done.
I would love to hear about your daily schedule! Do you have any tips for eliminating distractions when you need to get work done?
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